“Commercial building automation,” or “commercial automation,” refers to the use of computer and information technology to control commercial building systems, such as lighting, HVAC, audio-visual, smoke detection, security, and shading, among others. Using specialized hardware and control logic, building devices can monitor their environment and can be controlled automatically. Although commercial automation has been available at some level of sophistication for some time, it steadily becomes more practical, both from a technological and cost perspective.
Lighting automation, in particular, has evolved over time. Lighting systems now exist in which luminaires that comprise sensors, lamps, and control logic are networked together, in what is sometimes referred to as “connected lighting” or networked “smart lighting.” In such a network, the sensors that are associated with the luminaires collect data about the local environment, such as data related to occupancy and data related to ambient lighting in the vicinity of the luminaires. The networked luminaires communicate with each other, in some cases sharing the sensor data, and adjust the light output of the lamps via the control logic, with some level of coordination across the networked luminaires and other types of connected devices that are networked with one another.
There can be large numbers of such connected devices within a building, numbering in the hundreds, or even thousands, of devices sharing data with one another. Consequently, there are various issues to consider in planning and implementing a system of connected devices, so that the devices are installed and operate in a coordinated way.